Four crew members who were
kidnapped from an cargo ship off the Niger Delta in October have been freed in
Nigeria, according to reports.
The four men, two from
Lithuania and two from the Ukraine, were kidnapped October 19th from the
Comoros-flagged refrigerated cargo ship Solarte as the ship sailed off the
Niger Delta. During the attack, the pirates stole ship’s cash, destroyed
equipment and kidnapped the four of the 19 crew members before escaping.
The release of the kidnap
victims was announced by the Lithuanian foreign ministry, according to AFP.
Following the attack last
month, maritime security firm Dryad Maritime noted that the incident marked the
return of West Africa pirate attacks, an area that has experienced low levels
of maritime crime in recent months.
“This is the first incident
reported at sea off the Niger Delta in five months and has taken place 100 NM
further west than the spate of kidnappings which took place earlier this year,”
Dryad said in late October. “It comes at a time when the Nigerian Navy are
conducting increased patrols of the approaches to the Bonny River, and these
patrols may have forced this criminal gang to look into operating in this wider
area of West Africa.”
Source: gcaptain.com
No comments:
Post a Comment